


Happy Birthday, Love

by rebel_wren



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Party, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, Kanan Jarrus-centric, Teasing, takes place during season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 23:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20882327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebel_wren/pseuds/rebel_wren
Summary: Kanan tells Hera that he's never had a real birthday party, and she can't stand for that.





	Happy Birthday, Love

Kanan traced his fingers delicately down Hera’s lekku, trailing from the base to the tip, then going up and doing it all over again, sometimes following the curved design tattooed on them. He knew that she loved it when he did that- both because it felt good on the sensitive skin there, and because it was a quiet, but incredibly meaningful gesture for Twi’leks. She wouldn’t let him touch her lekku when they first got together, but now she’d lay her head against him a certain way that he quickly came to understand as an invitation, asking him while not actually having to ask him.

Laying in the quiet darkness of her room, Kanan’s hands continued their work on Hera. They hardly had moments like these anymore, as she became busy with her involvement in the Rebel Network, and he was busy training Ezra, and they were both busy taking care of the whole crew. So when they did get to be together like this, Kanan treasured it.

Hera moved her head, and Kanan let his hand fall to her lower back. She hummed appreciatively and sat up just slightly, propping herself on her elbows so that their faces were more level.

“Do you want anything for your birthday, love?”

Kanan frowned, wrinkling his nose up. “What?”

“Your birthday,” she reminded him, her voice slipping from a gentle into a more teasing tone. “It’s next week.”

He laughed quietly as she traced a finger down his arm. “You don’t have to get me anything.”

She nodded, though he could practically see gears turning behind her eyes as she clearly was still thinking. “How about we go to Old Jho’s for dinner? I know how much you love his custard.”

“Or do you know how much _ you _ love his tea?” Kanan said, pointing a finger at her for emphasis. She snorted and pushed his finger down.

“Don’t point at me!”

Kanan laughed with her, and nodded. “Dinner at Jho’s sounds perfect. Just us, or the rest too?”

Hera shrugged. “Up to you. Do you want a birthday party or a birthday date?”

He grinned at her. “Well, as much as I hate to pass up a date with you, I’ve never had a birthday party, so I think we’ll bring the others.”

Hera frowned, pulling back and sitting up even more, crossing her legs and sitting up straight. “You- you’ve never had a birthday party? Not even when you were a kid?”

“Wasn’t really the Jedi’s thing,” Kanan said. Clearly, this was a bigger deal to Hera than it was to him, but they had very different childhoods. “And if my parents ever threw me one, I don’t remember. But hey, there’s more important things, right?”

Hera nodded, but the more distracted look in her eyes told him she was still bothered.

“Of course,” she answered, sliding over to him and kissing him softly. He smiled at her when she pulled away, cupping her cheek in his hand.

“It really doesn’t matter, Hera.”

“I know that.”

Kanan didn’t want her to worry, but part of him was very glad that she cared this much.

* * *

When Hera asked Kanan to clean up some of the carbon scoring on the hull of the _ Ghost _, he mocked offense.

“On my birthday?”

Hera rolled her eyes, but surprisingly enough, she actually looked a little guilty about it. “If you don’t mind.”

He smiled at her. “Of course I don’t.”

She helped him out onto the hull, and then left him to clean, reminding him that she wanted it as perfect as possible. They didn’t get around to cleaning carbon scoring too often, which meant that when they did do it, there was a lot of build-up, and it would take a lot of time. Kanan just got straight to scrubbing, leaving him alone to his thoughts.

He’d almost forgotten about their plans to go to Jho’s tonight for his birthday. Hera and the others hadn’t mentioned it at all in days, and while he couldn’t blame them if they did forget, with everything going on, it was still disappointing. He’d been really looking forward to a dinner out with his whole family.

He scrubbed harder at a particularly tough spot, working at it until the muscle in his arm burned from the movement. He looked up as he did, across the horizon of Lothal. They weren’t far from Jhothal, he could see it from where he was. Maybe they hadn’t forgotten.

He pulled his hand away to admire the now shining spot on the _ Ghost _, smiling just a bit as he pictured Hera thanking him for working so hard to do this for her. Sure, it was his birthday, but Hera’s happiness was always a present good enough for him.

He crawled to another spot on the _ Ghost _ to work at the scoring there. He hoped Hera just expected him to get the spots off the top- there was enough there already, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to reach the sides, let alone the bottom. 

Kanan crawled all over the hull of the _ Ghost _ , cleaning as much of the black marks that he could, leaving the paint job of the ship more visibly unscathed (though it was faded with age- maybe they could talk to Sabine about giving it a fresh coat). He stood up, wiping his hands off on his pants and tossing the rags and scrubbers into the bucket and climbing back down into the interior of the _ Ghost _. He set the bucket with their other tools and cleaning supplies.

“Hera,” he called. “It’s good as new, you should come take a look!”

She didn’t answer- no one did. Kanan frowned, and walked down the hallway, checking the bunks, but no one was there.

“Hera? Sabine?”

He looked into Zeb and Ezra’s room, but they weren’t there either. He checked the refresher, the kitchen- they’d all disappeared. Kanan could feel a small panic building in him- and went to the cargo bay. When he looked down, oddly enough, one of the speeders was sitting there, ready for him to use.

He slid down the ladder and walked over to it- a piece of flimsi was taped onto it, with Hera’s handwriting on it.

“Meet us at Jho’s,” was all that it said. Kanan couldn’t help his grin as he jumped on the speeder, racing down the ramp and towards Jhothal. It wasn’t a long trip from where Hera had landed them, and he stopped the speeder outside of Old Jho’s along with, he noticed, the other speeders that were kept on the _ Ghost _. He smoothed his hair, tightening his ponytail and walked underneath the Republic dropship at the entrance into the bar. 

It looked normal, except in one corner, which had been decorated with very colorful streamers and balloons, that Kanan could only assume Sabine had something to do with. Ezra noticed him first, elbowing Zeb and point at him as Kanan walked over to the crew. Zeb, Sabine and Ezra were sitting on side, with Chopper by the edge of the table and Hera on the other side of the booth. Hera stood up first, to greet him with a hug.

“Happy birthday, dear,” she said as she squeezed him tight, and Kanan returned the hug just as fiercely.

“You didn’t have to do all this,” he said.

“It’s your first birthday party,” Hera replied pointedly. “I did.”

She broke the hug, tugging Kanan’s arm to bring him to the booth in the corner where they’d all situated themselves, surrounded by what were more and more clearly Sabine’s decorations.

“Happy birthday,” Zeb said Kanan sat across from him, reaching over the table to clap his shoulder, and Sabine and Ezra also both chimed in with their own birthday wishes, and he thought he heard Chopper too. Kanan smiled at all of them- this was a lot more than he was expecting.

“Thank you.”

Hera looked to Sabine and Ezra. “Why don’t you two go get the food from Jho?”

They went over to Jho at the bar, and Hera nudged Kanan.

“I hope you’re hungry.”

“I just spent hours scrubbing carbon scoring,” Kanan said, chuckling. “I’m definitely hungry.”

Zeb laughed, and Hera pursed her lips. “Sorry about that, I just needed to keep you busy for a while.”

“Well, it worked,” Kanan admitted. “I thought you all forgot.”

Hera shook her head, smiling at him and rubbing his arm. “We could never, love.”

Sabine and Ezra came back holding trays of food, already bickering about who’s tray was heavier. Hera rolled her eyes as they set them down, and she first took one of the plates and sat it in front of Kanan before taking one for herself.

They were mostly quiet as they ate, all being too hungry and the food being too good for them to interrupt their eating, but once they were done, Ezra and Sabine quickly stacked the plates in the middle, and Zeb took them to go back up to Jho’s counter, nudging Chopper with his foot on the way, who warbled indignantly.

“I don’t think I’ve eaten that much in ages,” Kanan said. He smiled at Hera, who laughed.

“Well, I hope you saved _ some _ room.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “There’s more?”

“It’s a birthday party,” she pointed out, and as if on cue, Zeb came back, carefully carrying a tray with a cake on it. It was simple, with a light blue icing on it and a few green candles, but it was more than Kanan had ever had in his life. He grinned at Zeb while he sat back down once the cake was in the middle of the table.

“Made it last night,” Zeb said proudly.

“I helped!” Ezra added, but Zeb shook his head.

“Eating half my icing and falling asleep isn’t helping.”

Ezra elbowed his arm, and Kanan chuckled. “Thank you both so much.”

Sabine took a lighter and lit the candles- there were five in total.

“How old do you think I am, Zeb?” Kanan asked, earning him a beautiful laugh from Hera.

“Just blow ‘em out,” Zeb grumbled.

“We have to sing first,” Hera said.

“I’m not singing,” Sabine protested.

Chopper made a sound of agreement, and Hera rolled her eyes.

“We have to!”

Kanan put an arm over Hera’s shoulders. “I’ll be okay. I’m supposed to make a wish, right?”

Hera nodded, and Kanan looked over the crew. They were all smiling at him, lit up slightly from the orange glow of the candles, and Kanan realized he didn’t really want to blow them out, if it meant that they could all stay like this for longer.

He knew exactly what to wish for.

He leaned in and blew out the candles, and Hera squeezed his thigh, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

“Happy birthday, love,” she said, and Kanan smiled, especially when he saw Sabine pull a face. Ezra wasted no time cutting himself a piece of the cake and taking it (a piece that Zeb protested as being too big), and they all passed the knife around, picking candles off of their pieces.

Kanan didn’t have much experience with birthday parties, but he didn’t think there were any that could top this one.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a minute since I wrote just plain old fluff. Thanks for reading!


End file.
